Moooi Heracleum

Bertjan Pot was born in 1975 in Niewleusen, the Netherlands. He studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, where he discovered his fascination for textiles. It is therefore not surprising that he chose a woven lamp as his final project.

After graduating, Pot worked as a freelance designer and shortly afterwards founded "Monkey Boys" with his friend from university, Daniel White. The two developed lamps and furniture under this name before deciding to go their separate ways in 2003. Since then, Bertjan Pot has successfully run his own studio under his own name.

There he designs unusual and technically sophisticated products based on extensive material research. The designer works very intuitively and likes to experiment with structures, patterns and colours.

In addition to Heracleum, he has also designed Random Light and Prop Light for Moooi. Both lights are characterised by their special structure. While Random Light is made up of randomly arranged fibreglass threads, the body of Prop Light is made of modern HIPS plastic with transparent glass bulbs on top.

Like almost all of Bertjan Pot's designs, Heracleum is based on an experiment. The Dutchman experimented with LEDs and bundles of electrical wires, which were moulded into a branch structure. During development, however, Pot realised that too much soldering was required for the finished design. However, this did not dissuade him from his idea. Instead, Pot turned to the well-known designer and founder of Moooi, Marcel Wanders.

Together, they opted for an innovative technique in which two layers of insulation and conductivity are applied to the structure. Thanks to this conductive sandwich coating, the LEDs of the Heracleum are supplied with power. On the one hand, this means that no cables are required and, on the other, it enables a particularly delicate design.